


Flower Spew

by wingsofimagery



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23089771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingsofimagery/pseuds/wingsofimagery
Summary: A story based on the Hanahaki Disease troupe with original characters ||| Life never treated him well. The one time he took a chance was all he needed to prove himself right.
Kudos: 1





	Flower Spew

Working alone in this huge bookstore was something Rocky was content with. It wasn’t a lonely job like most thought it would be. He was accompanied by stacks of books, more than he could imagine. It was a dream of Rocky’s to work in such a gigantic bookstore. The books ranged from thin to thick, short to tall, and even classics to recent releases. There was so much to enjoy in this store, there wasn’t much else Rocky could ask for. Until now.

  
He was shocked when a girl walked behind the counter with a wave and a smile directed towards him. Rocky’s eyes trailed down her small figure while she put her bag and coat into an empty cubby beneath the counter. He watched as she tightened the hairband that wrapped her hair together, loose fringes framed her round cheeks. It took a moment before he snapped out of his trance to ask who she was.

  
“My name is Joa. The shop owner was nice enough to give me a job here since he’s an old friend of my mom’s. Today is my first day. I hope we’ll have a good time working together.” she giggled with a hand-stretched in his direction.

  
He took his time staring at the outstretched hand, his thoughts mushed together into one incoherent clutter. The boss never told him another person was going to work in the store.

  
“I’m mine. The pleasure is Rocky.” he bit his tongue at the mess up. His soul felt like it left his body in that instant. Why was he suddenly so nervous? He felt the heat in his cheeks and on the tip of his ears. He was sure Joa saw it too but it didn’t seem like she saw it or she chose to ignore it. Either way, Rocky was thankful for that. He excused himself, informing her that he was going to shelve some books that were returned by customers. He made sure to tell her to stay by the counter so that the shop owner could see her first thing.

  
Despite the shop being big, Rocky was able to see the counter no matter where he was due to the shop’s intended layout. He had no trouble keeping an eye on Joa and looking out for customers in need of checking out. When Mr. Kim, the shop’s owner, noticed Joa, he gestured for her to follow him. For the rest of the day, he went on assisting customers and checking books out for purchasers.

  
When it was time to close up for the night, Rocky saw from the corner of his eye the shop owner and Joa approaching him. The two had big smiles on their face. The shop owner called his name. He tilted his head up to look at the two that towered over his bend over form.

  
“What’s up, boss?”

  
“Joa told me you met her already so I guess there’s no need for introductions. She’ll be working with you from now on. Please get along you two.”

  
A smile was once again gracing her lips. Rocky nodded in reply, turning his attention back to his task, “alright.”

  
He didn’t mean to give her a cold, one-worded answer but Rocky was still not used to having a new person around. While Joa awkwardly waited for further instructions, the shop owner thought it would be better to take Joa under his wings and instead gently guided her away from Rocky who was busy with closing the shop.

  
“Please don’t think too much of Rocky’s offhanded behavior. It’s most likely because he’s not used to working with another person. He’s a bit of a lone wolf.”

  
Rocky’s ear twitched. Although they were walking away, he still heard the comment said by Mr. Kim. He watched for a moment while Mr. Kim brought Joa around the store to reorder the books. He was impressed by how she already knew the Dewey decimal system. Unlike Rocky, who needed to be taught each step of the system, she got right to work before Mr. Kim even started explaining it. A frown marred Rocky's lips. He mentally scolded himself for being so distracted and forced himself to stop staring so he can go back to work. By the time everything was done, Rocky was ready to take his leave.

  
“Have a good night, boss.” He was about to say good night to Joa as well but he chickened out the moment his eyes made eye contact with her dazzling brown eyes. He exited the shop without any other words, leaving both Mr. Kim and Joa confused. He pulled the face mask he had on his chip up to cover the incoming blush.

\---

  
Two months passed just like that. Rocky rarely gave Joa the chance to talk to him. He constantly gave her single worded responses and did whatever he could to keep the conversation simple. He saw the pout on her plump lips every time she failed to spark more than two words from him. It’s not that Rocky didn’t want to be friends with her but it was really hard for him to be working with someone else every day, especially someone so kind and sweet from the get-go.

  
There was an instance where she got him to have a long conversation one night as they were cleaning up the shop. They were talking about flowers and while Joa gushed about her fondness over then, Rocky couldn’t help but answer her that he liked flowers quite a bit as well. The topic went from asking about what flower was their favorite to sharing flower meanings.

  
“A flower festival!” she exclaimed, remembering the flyer she saw earlier that day.

  
He looked at her with one eyebrow cocked up then asked, “are you planning on going?”

  
“Well…” she scratched the back of her neck, “I do want to but I don’t really have anyone to go with...”

  
He watched as she became dejected. He may not know what she was sad about but he for sure does not know how to comfort people so he offered her to go with him.  
“You’d accompany me?”

  
He couldn’t take back his words at this point, her eyes were twinkling with so much hope that he felt he could go blind any moment, so he reluctantly agreed.

  
‘What could go wrong?’ he thought to himself, ‘It’s just a flower festival… with a pretty girl. If she’s going to work here for a while, it’s best we got along right? Plus, they got along so well chatting about flowers, this is basically the best setup there is for a hangout… or is it a date?’

  
A blush began to rush across his cheeks and when Joa asked him why his cheeks were getting red, he slapped his cheeks hard and reassured her that everything was fine. Although weirded out by his reaction, he was thankful she didn’t push him further for an answer. The two agreed on the time and place to meet up and went about with their daily tasks in the shop. There was a silent agreement between them where they would not cross each other’s paths (although if they did, they would give a quick smile before going back to their job) and work on separate things. They have a type of ‘I got you, you got me’ kind of system going on.

  
\---

  
On the day of the festival, Rocky arrived before Joa, so he decided to get something for her to eat and drink in case she had forgotten to. Lo and behold, upon arriving he saw one shoe was left untied and her hair frayed a bit. He could tell from the way she looked, she must have overslept. Before she could even ask Rocky to stop by a food stand on their way, he pushed the food and drink towards her direction. Joa’s eyes lit up and thanked him for the gesture.

  
He watched her unwrap the paper packaging and promptly taking a huge bite out of the food. Rocky knew how delicious the bun was and the irresistible hum of happiness that came from her throat told him she thought so too. As soon as she was done with the bun, Rocky handed her the soda he bought. She gulped the small can down, letting out a sigh when the container was empty.

  
“Let’s get going,” he uttered, gazing at the slowly increasing crowd with wavering eyes. Joa agreed excitedly as she began to pull him by his wrist. Her excited chattering went in one ear and out the other for Rocky. He was busy focusing on her small hand that didn’t wrap fully around his wrist. He didn’t even realize the blush that seeped through to the surface of his cheeks.

  
The two discovered new flowers and fawned over flowers they thought were pretty. They saw Alstroemerias, Gardenias, Maiden Pinks, and many more. The two pointed out ones they liked and shook their heads at ones they don’t. Every once in awhile, Joa would ask Rocky to take a picture for her to which she would smile to herself for a while as her thumbs tapped the screen rapidly. Joa then turned around to face Rocky.

  
“Hey, let’s go to that show there. They seem like they’re talking about something interesting!” she questioned, the everlast smile etched upon her lips. He wondered if she’d ever stop smiling.

  
The two got closer to where a small crowd had gathered to listen to the storyteller on stage. She was dressed in a gorgeous red kimono. The sash wrapped around her waist was tied into a neat, big bow in the back. She spoke with elegance and knowledge. Rocky was not paying attention to what she was saying as he observed her outfit. He found himself picturing Joa in the outfit. Although she was small, he can tell the red color would suit her red-colored lips well. Joa nudged him with a smile before returning her attention to the storyteller.

  
“Has anyone ever heard of the Hanahaki disease?” the storyteller asked.

  
Rocky only understood the word “hana” as a friend had once explained to him that it meant flower in Japanese.

  
“They say that it’s a disease where if a person falls in love with another person and that other person does not like them the way they do, then the person who fell in love will begin to cough up flower petals. The more they fall in love, the more the flower blooms.” Her hands flew alluringly in explanation.

  
The storyteller spun a short story about a person who fell in love with his long time friend but he didn’t realize the love for years. The day he found out he had been in love with his friend, he began to cough up petals. The petals became a full-bloomed flower and soon it developed from a flower to multiple. He watched as the friend he loved got married while he painfully choked on the flower he held back.

  
Rocky heard sniffles coming from beside him. He looked down to see that it was Joa who was crying. Not knowing what to do, he awkwardly patted her on the head. A kind person next to her gave her a piece of tissue to dry her eyes. He chuckled softly at the scene, finding it endearing that she was such an emotional person. The two clapped their hands when the storyteller ended her session with a bow. They then made their way back to the main walkway while talking about the story they just heard.  
“So the petal will become a whole flower and so on so forth?” Rocky recapped.

Joa nodded, folding her hands in front of her. Her face turned solemn, “I don’t wish this upon anyone… It would be terrible if someone fell in love with me and I can’t return their feelings.”

  
He nodded as well, then attempted to distract her with a stall that sold flower hairpins. The two looked at all the gleaming ornaments the small stall had to offer. Joa found herself gravitating towards a sunflower colored with pink petals. It shone in the sunlight as if to tell her that this was the one for her. Smiling to the merchant, she asked for the pin, giving the cash to them.

  
She clipped it onto a part of her hair and smiled at Rocky. “What do you think?”

  
He nodded absentmindedly. His attention was focused on how the pin accentuated her hair that was braided across her head. She took his response as a good one and smiled happily.

  
By the time the sun began to set, the night market started to flourish. There were games to play and different types of food to eat. There were many times of Asian cuisines like takoyaki, ramen, spicy rice cake, kimbap, dumplings, candied hawthorns, and many more. There was also some American street food such as hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the greasy goodness that made Rocky and Joa want to drool at the sight. They took quite a bit of time savoring the food before the two went on to other activities.  
They played yo-yo scoping, a game where the player gets a paper string with a hook at the end and the player has to pull up balloons filled with water inside in a pool full of water without breaking the string. Rocky was able to get two and could have gone on for more but he felt that it was good enough getting one for himself and one for Joa.

  
They had lost track of time and only realized how late it was when they saw some stalls turning off their lights and packing their stuff away. Rocky suggested it was time to end their day there, to which Joa had agreed, a yawn making its way out while she stretched. He insisted on bringing her home.

  
“Safety first,” was his excuse. She thanked him for the eventful day and hoped that they are more friendly with each other than when they started out. He bobbed his head in agreement, producing a smile on her lips. They exchanged short good night greetings before she began making her way towards her house. He watched her stride up the side stairs as she reached into her bag for her keys. Rocky wanted to make sure she got into the house before leaving but the actual reason why he didn’t want to leave just yet was that he enjoyed spending time with her. He wished the day would have lasted longer. When she closed the door after waving to him, he found himself letting out a melancholic sigh. With much reluctance in his steps, he slowly headed home.

  
\---

  
A man had walked into the store, capturing the attention of everyone who laid their eyes upon him. He was tall and had a face that seemed like he had jumped out of a masterpiece. Rocky paid no heed to him beside a ‘welcome’ that was barely audible. The man walked around, head peeking between each row of books before he found what he was looking for.

  
“Felix!” Joa exclaimed, catching Rocky’s attention. He peeked from the corner of his eyes to watch the interaction between the two unfold.

  
Joa had jumped into the man’s arms. A burst of laughter came from the two as he spun her around. They asked each other how their day was, smiling sweetly as they chatted in each other’s arms. Frowning at their intimate conversation, Rocky cleared his throat.

  
“If you don’t mind, there’s a staff room for you to take a moment, Joa.” He forced a smile upon his lips.

  
Apologizing quickly for her mistake, she briefly introduced the man to Rocky.

  
“This is my boyfriend, Felix. Felix, this is the coworker I was talking to you about. He’s a great friend!”

  
Rocky stiffly nodded at Felix. Felix was a tall man and despite being pretty tall himself, he still towered a good few inches over him. The man was extremely handsome, Rocky could see why Joa chose him to be in a relationship with. Their relationship brought a bitter taste to Rocky’s tongue.

  
“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Rocky.” The twitch in his smile went unrecognized by the couple. Taking this time to usher them to the backroom, Rocky made his way back to the counter to continue working. He strived to keep his cool but the burning itch in his throat made it futile. He was only able to keep this up for a short moment before he broke out into a small coughing session.

  
Thankfully by this time, the store was about to close so most people had retired for the evening. Joa was still in the backroom with Felix so Rocky thought it was safe to let his guard down for a moment. He knelt down to hide from the public’s eye. The coughing got worse as he began to hack up what felt like was something stuck in his throat. This feeling was not there before. It had only surfaced when he saw the moment the couple had earlier.

  
He had finally coughed up the unidentified object. He wheezed and coughed again to regain composure. Rocky’s eyes trailed down to see what the object that caused him so much trouble was. There lying on his hand was a single pink petal. The petal looked oddly familiar to him but he couldn’t put a finger on what it was. He felt another round of nausea make its way back. For the second time today, he tried to choke up what was stuck in his throat.

  
More petals had erupted from him. It felt like he was vomiting a whole flower out at this point but all he was able to gag out was more petals. Despite being in shock, he knew what was going on.

  
He felt bad for catching feelings for her because he remembered her saying she never wanted anyone falling in love with her if she didn’t return the feelings. Rocky laughed pitifully to himself. Now that he has realized his one-sided love for her, how was he going to hide it from her? He decided that it was a problem for another day.

  
As swiftly and efficiently as he could, Rocky cleaned the store and rid any evidence of the pink petals that he had hurled out. When he was sure everything was all cleaned up, he went into the staff room to tell Joa that he was going to leave first. He was about to say something when he heard Felix’s voice from behind the door of the staff room. The door was not fully closed, a small inch crack remained opened, and Rocky listened in on their conversation, despite knowing that he shouldn’t.

  
Rocky heard laughter emit from the couple. He could hear the two’s words dripping with affection; it disgusted him. He bit his lip as he felt another cough coming. He didn’t want to expose his location, that would create a terrible situation and to be frank, he wasn’t in the mood to be dealing with that. He listened on to their conversation with a pained heart. Shuffling was heard in the room and a gasp followed right after, Rocky had a feeling about what direction this was going but he couldn’t bring himself to move.

  
“Will you marry me?” he heard Felix say as dread overcame Rocky.

  
Rocky tilted his head back, the feeling of bile creeping higher by the second. He swallowed in hopes of keeping it at bay but it barely made a difference. He heard a squeal, a shrilled “yes” came from Joa. The pain was beginning to suffocate him so he decided to open the door a moment later.

  
“I came to say bye since I was done with everything,” his voice was strained, his eyes scanned her fingers for the ring and right before his eyes was a shining silver band around her ring finger confirming his suspicions, yet he forced himself to finish his sentence, “remember to lock up and have a good night, you two.”

  
She gave him the honey-coated smile he had came to fall in love with and waved goodbye to him while bidding him a good night along with Felix, who smiled silently while waving.

  
Rocky felt a painful pang in his heart and his throat felt ever more constricted. With an abrupt nod, he turned to take his leave. He was glad his apartment wasn’t far from the store itself. He made it home in no time. His hand flew up to lock the front door.  
Hunched over, he coughed until the flower in his system was hacked up. Tired, he closed his eyes and collapsed on the floor. He heaved a sigh, then stared at the flower. He didn’t expect the petal to have blossomed so quickly. Now a full-bloomed flower, he could recognize it anywhere.

  
It was the same as the pink sunflower pin Joa had bought that day they first hung out.


End file.
